I agree. Holtby is tough enough to play deeper and Huddlestone's not exactly a small bloke, is he? Both can tackle, and more importantly, both can pick out good passes as we turn defence into attack. Too often Parker gets the ball, does his 360 degree turn and then passes sideways or backwards, allowing the opposition to get back 20 yards, when we could have broken free on the counter. Also, It allows Dembele to have some freedom further forward where he's looked very effective.
The way I look at it, if we're under pressure I don't want our defence being protected by Huddlestone, who's slow, Holtby, who's tackling's not great, and Dembele, who rightly or wrongly concedes a lot of fouls. They're all much better with the ball than without it for starters and if we're going to play 433 we're going to need our wingers, Bale in particular, to push further forward meaning that the 3 in the middle have to be organised and able to cope with more defensive responsibilityso having Parker back with Dembele and Huddlestone also chipping in makes sense. We're up against a decent footballing side with little to lose so if they commit forward then I fancy Bale, Defoe and Lennon's chances against their defence(or against any defence) with Dembele and Huddlestone bridging the gap and getting the ball to them. If they do try and sit deep from the off, like they did at White Hart Lane, then we can always change it but again we'll already have to quality players on the ball in the middle and with Parker infront of the defence our fullbacks and Vertonghen can all push forward, although not at once obviously.
Holtby + Dembele works quite nicely IMO. Both have something going forward but both get stuck in enough that we don't require a dedicated DM. I'd like to get Hudd in there too but it could be quite congested unless we budge Holtby forward a bit or we play with 2 out and out wingers.
The thing with Parker is as of late, I don't think he's offered much protection to our back four. Daws and Verts have been really in the mix of things of late, more than what the likes of Kaboul and Daws etc had to do last season when Parker was in front of them. I know he's on the wrong side of 30 now but the difference between our POTY last season to this is massive in my opinion, you'd think he'd gone from 31 to 38 in age! At least with Hudd, while he won't protect the back 4 greatly, when in possession you know he'll create things, when Scott hits a long pass I fear for my life
Heart attack, nervous breakdown or from simply being hit by it while you sit in the stand or your living room?
I suppose really YV I just wants to see the team that finished so well against City start against Wigan. I think we hit on a formation there that deserves a start. I do not underestimate the work Parker has done for us but I am beginning to think that he is not so effective as he was with Modric and VDV around him. It's the perfomance of Hudd that impressed me and he has not been so efective with Parker beside him. Holtby is the future and the combination that Hudd and Holtby can produce is an exciting prospect. If we are struggling then I would bring on Parker to shore things up.
I agree with this. I think with sandro in the side our defence seemed to have less work to do. I'm not sure about stats for goals conceded since his injury but I'm sure I read somewhere sandro had the most interceptions on the league.
With Dembele struggling though he's not been able to just sit like he did last season because Dembele's influence going forward lessened and the role is slightly different. With a 3 in midfield, playing him alongside Huddlestone and an improved Dembele he can afford to go back into his comfort zone shielding the defence and he should always have an easy outball to Hudd or Dembele. I'm a bit surprised selecting Parker in my 11 was so contraversial, particularly for an away game but there you go
It's just bloody odd at times, Spurf. Looks like a 5-3-2 on paper, but seems to flow really strangely and some players seem to have quite a license to roam. If we can force Boyce and Beausejour to spend most of their time defending and deny McCarthy and time and space, then we should be able to turn them over. I just wonder how a 4-3-3 that we're not used to would match up against their normal set up. Martinez seems to be able to pull out the odd result against us.
Generally I agree with you Spurf but not on this one I'm afraid. We cannot gamble on what might be the future- we have to go with the tried and change it if it doesn't work. Right now it's safety first-if we are struggling without Parker it might be too late.
Don't be afraid of Spurf. He's essentially just a Smurf who thinks he's big and clever by changing the letter "M" to a "P" to make it sound Tottenham related.
